Ecommerce to be New Growth Driver in Chinese Economy

Ecommerce to be New Growth Driver in Chinese Economy

Published on : Mar 04, 2014

Chinese ecommerce companies are set to make it big in the coming years with the market for ecommerce in China likely to grow to a whopping value of USD 8.17 trillion by 2020. This is what the vice-president of Alibaba estimates.

China has largely been an export oriented society and it is online retail that is currently enabling the country to make a shift from this status. The growth of online retail will help China up its domestic purchase volumes. Experts feel that this will drive the economic growth of China by 2020.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in a recently conducted research, said that online shopping is already a major force in the country, and is poised for further growth. Going ahead, ecommerce will contribute to as much as 5.5% of the total economic growth in China by 2020.

While this percentage might seem like a small number, in a massive economy like China, it can exert a strong influence. The growing influence of commerce will also benefit the overall Chinese economy, feel experts.

It is currently assumed that the GDP in China will increase at a rate of 7.5% per year until 2020. The retail market in the country will also continue to grow at an average of 25% year-on-year.

However, the ecommerce industry in China has exceeded this 25% growth rate. And, market analysts predict that the ecommerce business volumes in China are set to overtake that of the United States over the next few years. This will put China in the leading position of being the largest market for online retail trade with a robust 60% year-on-year growth figure, according to a statement made in December 2013 by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.